Karijini National Park is a long way from most places. If you wish to visit this famously beautiful area of Western Australia and you can get yourself to the capital city of Perth, there is still a long journey ahead of you. Of course, if finance is no issue, you can catch a plane to Paraburdoo, hire a car and drive the 164 Kms to Karijini. All is well if you have a booking for accommodation at the Karijini Eco Retreat. If like us you want to include visits to other areas of Western Australia in your trip, you need a caravan, a camper van, a motor home or just a four wheel drive and a tent and make the 1378 Kilometre journey. If you have got yourself to Exmouth on the coast, you have reduced your journey to only 674 Kilometres.
If this sounds all too much like hard work, your fellow Australians don’t agree with you. When we were there in May of 2021, Karijini was full of visitors. One indication of its popularity was getting a booking to eat at the restaurant in the Eco Retreat. We were lucky we had booked ahead so on our first night after a long day’s drive, we were able to dine out at the unexpectedly amazing restaurant. To get another booking three days later, we were only able to get an opening around 8.30pm.
Our choice of transport from Perth to Karijini was a motor home as we wanted to carry our home on our back, not just to Karijini, but all the way back to Perth down the coast of Western Australia. We were booked into the Eco Retreat which provides a wide range of camp sites spread out amongst the trees and grasslands of the area. If we wanted, we could have booked a glamping tent or a cabin. The attraction of this National Park is its ancient gorges and the Retreat is situated near Joffre Gorge. If you are providing your own transport from the Eco Retreat to the other gorges in the park, you will need your own 4-wheel drive to get around. Of course, you can take tours organised from the Retreat centre. This facility is 100% owned by Aboriginal-owned Gumala Enterprises, representing the Banjima, Yinhawangka and Nyiyaparli people of the Pilbara region.
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